TeamPIXEL Opens KickStarter for ‘Homeworld’ IP Rights

Back in January, when THQ was auctioning off its first batch of assets, teamPIXEL (a young, independent indie studio) was spurred into taking part in said auction in hopes to obtain the IP rights to one of Relic Entertainment’s legendary franchises: Homeworld.

When THQ went into bankruptcy, though saddening and unfortunate, it gave teamPIXEL a massive opportunity to bring back the Homeworld series to gamers. Even though they are but a small studio, and even with investing their own funds into the project, they couldn’t have obtained the rights on their own, hence why they opted for crowd-funding, to ask fans of the series to help contribute to teamPIXEL’s goal. At the time, they had three main goals, as well as some stretch goals:

> Digitally re-release the Homeworld series to GoG and Steam;
> Develop a mobile counterpart of the original Homeworld for smartphones and tablets; and
> Develop the long-awaited sequel Homeworld 3.

Their first crowd-funding campaign – “SaveHomeworld.com” – was over on IndieGogo (a crowd-funding site similar to KickStrater). Though that particular campaign ended in February, they managed to raise over $13,500 of contributions from over 440 backers, including myself. That hasn’t stopped them there, however, because – due to popular request, I believe – they have opened up an option to donate via PayPal, so fans can keep on contributing despite the IndieGogo campaign being finished.

In his lastest update on the IndieGogo campaign, Robert Santos (lead developer) detailed that teamPIXEL’s bidding procedures have officially started for the Homeworld franchise, and that, since the end of that campaign, they have continued to raise additional funds.

When the IndieGogo campaign started, I watched teamPIXEL’s efforts and did my best to spread the word of their cause. However, once it ended in February, I fell out touch with what was happening, assuming that it was now up to teamPIXEL to do the rest. That was until news of THQ’s second auction came about. I knew teamPIXEL would still be on the ball, and was waiting for an update so I could bring said update to you, the reader. What I didn’t expect, however, was for teamPIXEL to start up a KickStrater campaign of the same name – SaveHomeworld.com.

TeamPIXEL’s KickStrater campaign was started up due to countless emails from fans who were apologising for missing the IndieGogo campaign and requested that the same campaign be launched on KickStrater. With the same end-goal amount as its predecessor, the KickStrater campaign hopes to raise $50,000 to help contribute to teamPIXEL’s bidding efforts.

Though this is an additional campaign, the end-goals still remain the same, only with a couple of extra stretch-goals at the time of writing: remastering of the original Homeworld, different platforms to be developed for – there’s even some pretty inviting rewards, too. To keep fans up to date with their efforts, Santos will be bringing development demos of the Homeworld mobile counterpart they currently have a working prototype of. The first of hopefully many is currently on the KickStrater’s front page.

The KickStrater has until March 26th to reach its $50,000 minimum goal, otherwise teamPIXEL won’t receive any of the contributed funds, at least that’s my understanding of the situation. Having said that, should the KickStrater fail (touch wood!), teamPIXEL have a money back guarantee, meaning that all funds will be returned to their respective backers, and they will try to cover what they can for themselves.

Even though there are two campaigns going, the rewards and perks respective to each one are not interchangeable: IndieGogo rewards do not apply to KickStrater contributors, and vise versa I believe. Having said that, if you paid X amount during the IndieGogo campaign, you will be automatically enrolled to the appropriate reward tier in the KickStrater campaign: contribute $50 to IndieGogo, enroll $50 reward tier on KickStrater. If multiple rewards apply, teamPIXEL will contact you for your choice on what reward you want. For more information on teamPIXEL’s campaigns, you can visit both their IndieGogo and KickStrater campaigns respectively.

I wish teamPIXEL all the best in both their campaigns. I will follow up this article with updates from KickStrater whenever they come about, and if they’re worth writing about. Hopefully they will beat their goal and then some!